Jonathan Fielding, L.A. County’s director of public health, said 54 people in the county have become sick from the virus. “The number overall of cases has been higher than in the last few years, and it appears to be increasing," Fielding said. "Our hope is that, in the next month or so, that it will decline as it does when the weather gets cooler."

Fielding noted that the vast majority of people who contract the virus don’t feel any symptoms.

West Nile Virus is passed to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito.